On the Asia Minor Peninsula, after five consecutive days of bitter fighting and nearly three thousand casualties, the Russian army finally cleared the enemy from the port. Ava was like a peeled cherry.
General Ivanov had personally arrived at the front to oversee the battle. A mere struggle for a port had taken five days, which was highly detrimental to the Russian army's plans for the next stage of the campaign.
Speed was the soul of war. To swiftly break through the Black Sea Straits, the most important thing was one word—speed.
Transportation in the Ottoman interior was obstructed, and the Austrian Navy had already blockaded the sea routes. What they needed most to conduct large-scale troop movements was time.
Beforehand, the Sultan Government had not known the Allied forces' exact landing site and could only deploy defenses everywhere. Even now, while fortifying the straits' coastline, the Sultan Government also had to guard against the Allies striking straight at the heart of their territory.
The Ottoman Empire had already lost its capital once; it could not afford to lose it a second time. If Ankara truly fell and the Asia Minor Peninsula were split in two, the Sultan Government would have nowhere to go but death.
According to the Russian army's plan, they were to take Ava within two days, then rapidly expand in all directions, putting on the posture of striking straight at the heart of the enemy and forcing the Sultan Government to gather nearby troops to intercept them.
That was no longer possible now. With an additional three days, the situation had become entirely different. The Sultan Government had gained time to readjust its troop deployments, and the war had grown more difficult.
Watching stretchers carrying wounded men pass before his eyes one after another and listening